観光案内所「Galway Tourist Information Centre」のフェンスに掲げられていた アイルランドの写真 「The Battle of Aughrim Nic Dunlop
These photographs were taken over a six year period, between 2016 and 2022.
The Battle of Aughrim was fought on 12 July, 1691 in eastern Galway, between the Jacobite army under the command of James II and the combined forces of William III. It was the last great battle on Irish soil. Estimates of the dead run to 7,000. Sometimes who was fighting, the thunder of battle could be heard as far as Galway city. Aughrim was one of the decisive and bloodiest battles in Irish history, one which sealed William’s takeover (1690–91) of the throne of James II. For the defeated, the Irish army took to the field, signalling one of the darkest periods in Irish history.
It was at Aughrim that photographer Nic Dunlop began taking photographs as a meditation on the passage of time after war, often working in areas of conflict himself. The series highlights different markers of man and place at Aughrim and in landscape west of the Shannon. As with all Dunlop’s documentary works, ordinary faces, a footpath, a tree, the bend of the road, form part of the terrain of memory. The Battle of Aughrim was my guide. The Irish author Richard Murphy’s poem “The Battle of Aughrim” is used as the title. I began photographing the field in winter to better reflect the aftermath, and every image is haunted by the need to narrate not only what happened, but why it happened that fateful day.
「"At the very top of the hill, cavalry were mixed with infantry. The firing was so intense that the ridges seemed to be ablaze. As dusk fell, the cavalry began to move away and take flight, abandoning the infantry, who, in turn threw down their arms, left their colours and ran." — A Danish eyewitness account」
「今日は我らのものだ、子らよ(Le jour est à nous, mes enfants)」と、彼の最期の言葉: /
砲弾が彼の首を跳ね、そして神話が蒔かれた。
— 『アスリムの戦い』リチャード・マーフィー著(リリパット・プレス刊)】
「“The blood from the dead so covered the ground that one could hardly take a step without slipping. This grisly scene of slaughter remained untouched and unchanged for several days, the horror of which cannot be imagined except by those who saw it.”
「Behind the dog-rose ditch, defended with pikes, /
A tractor sprays a rood of flowering potatoes: /
Morning fog is lifting, and summer hikers /
Bathe in a stream passed by cavalry traitors.」
【ドッグローズ(野バラ)の生け垣の裏側、かつて槍で守られた塹壕の向こうに、
トラクターが一反の花咲くジャガイモ畑に薬剤を散布している。
朝もやは晴れゆき、夏のハイカーたちが
「Aughrim’s great disaster /
Made him two hundred years my Penal master /
Raparees, whiteboys, volunteers, ribbonmen,
Where have they gone? /
Coerced into exile, scattered /
Leaving a burnt gable and a field of ragwort.」
【アスリムの大災厄が
あの男を200年にわたる私の刑罰の主とした
ラパリー(義賊)、ホワイトボーイズ、義勇兵、リボン党たちよ
彼らはどこへ行った?
追放され、散り散りにされ
焼け落ちた妻壁(切妻)と、キオンの野にそれを残して。】
「“The Irish laid so close in their ditches, that several were doubtful whether they had any men at that place or not: but they were convinced of it at last; for no sooner were the French, and the rest, within twenty yards, or less, of the ditches, the Irish fired most furiously upon them; which our men bravely sustained, and pressed forwards, though they could scarce see one another for smoke.”